Fire controlled at Cosan's Brazil sugar export terminal in Santos

SAO PAULO Aug 4 (Reuters) - Firefighters at Brazil's Santos
Port contained a blaze at two sugar warehouses operated by Cosan
SA early on Monday, but the damage threatened to
disrupt exports.

The fire broke out at the sugar terminal's Warehouse X at
4:30 p.m. local time (1930 GMT) on Sunday, and 100 firefighters
were on site Monday morning, said press representatives for
Cosan, Brazil's biggest sugar producer. The cause of the fire
was unknown.

Last October, fire gutted the Santos export terminal of
Brazil's largest sugar trader, Copersucar SA, quickly sending
futures prices up 6 percent and causing the trader to
issue force majeure to its clients.

A spokesman at the Santos fire department said workers had
finished controlling the fire and started an "aftermath"
operation around 4 a.m. local time. He did not estimate the
structural damage but said it had been a large-scale blaze.

There was no sign that the fire had spread beyond the
warehouses controlled by Rumo Logística, Cosan's logistic unit
at the port. Copersucar's terminal, which is still under repair
from the October fire, is right next to Rumo.

Loss of the sugar stored in Rumo's warehouses, which can
hold 550,000 tonnes, is likely to be of less concern than the
potential damage to the terminal's capacity to export 12 million
tonnes a year.

The fire will probably disrupt short-term loading of sugar
into ships at the Rumo terminal. Photographs in the local media
showed large, thick columns of black and gray smoke rising from
the terminal.

When large stockpiles of sugar ignite, they can be difficult
to extinguish quickly. As the substance burns, it creates a
carbonized outer shell that inhibits the penetration of water
and chemicals that would otherwise snuff out the fire.

Brazil, the world's largest producer and exporter of sugar,
is in the middle of its main center-south cane harvest that is
expected to produce 32 million to 34 million tonnes, slightly
less than estimated earlier in the year due to an ongoing
drought.
(Reporting by Roberto Samora and Reese Ewing; Editing by Lisa
Von Ahn)